FORT MILL, S.C.—Few believed Brunswick Community College could win this championship tournament.

A basketball team with nine freshmen. A team that began the season 0-2 in the conference. A team that lost 97-69 to league champion Cape Fear on Feb. 24, just three days before the end of the regular season.

They entered dancing, singing and celebrating to the upbeat praise chorus, “We are Marching.”

They were dressed in brightly colored fabrics and came with a message of praising God—jingling bells, shaking maracas and beating tambourines. Participating women were dressed in “kangas,” traditional African wraps worn as shawls, skirts or dresses and used in celebration.

They were women from churches from southern Brunswick County gathered to celebrate World Day of Prayer Friday morning at Seaside United Methodist Church.

A Shallotte man was killed Saturday in Columbus County after an out-of-control truck driven by a drunk driver struck him and a friend as they stood in a backyard.

Miguel Toribio Asencio, 20, was killed after he was hit by a Ford F-250 pickup truck traveling at an estimated speed of 75 mph.

Another Brunswick County resident, Thomas Kenneth Paradise, 31, of Calabash, was charged with second-degree murder and driving drunk. He was being held at Columbus County Detention Center under $1,002,500 bond.

Believe it or not, poisoning, bank robbery, murder, amnesia and double-crossing all play major roles in a new novel from a local author.

Supply resident Jack Evans recently had his first novel published and is embarking on a new career as a full-time writer.

The way Evans describes his novel, “Necro-Anda,” recently published by PublishAmerica, is like few things even longtime mystery fans have heard before—and it all takes place in Brunswick County and the nearby towns of Myrtle Beach and North Myrtle Beach, S.C.

Detectives with the Brunswick County Sheriff’s Office are searching for this unidentified male suspect. He is a suspect in a first-degree burglary that occurred on Feb. 16 in the area of Green Swamp Road in Supply.

Anyone with information about this suspect, or who knows his whereabouts is asked to contact detective Tony Caison at 253-2777.

A local casting agency has announced an open casting call for background actors 18 or older to portray small-town residents in need of medical assistance for a new CBS television pilot to be filmed mostly in Winnabow.

The open casting call will be from 10 a.m.- 5 p.m. Saturday, March 13, and Sunday March 14 at Fincannon & Associates offices at EUE-Screen Gems Studios, 1235 23rd St. N., Wilmington.

A fire destroyed a garage on Shell Point Road last Friday. The cause of the fire is undetermined, but investigators suspect an electrical overload, according to John Winders, fire and rescue coordinator for Brunswick County Emergency Services. Winders said it was a total loss. The Civietown, Shallotte, Supply and Tri-Beach fire departments responded, and firefighters were on scene more than three hours, according to Shallotte Fire Chief Paul Dunwell. Dunwell said the State Bureau of Investigation and the Brunswick County K-9 arson investigator responded, but no arson is suspected.

This has been a tough winter for cold weather wimps like me, and I have the chapped lips and cracked fingers to prove it. Yes, I know the former New Englanders are laughing hysterically and asking, “Would you like some cheese with that whine?”

Some of our plants have, like me, struggled with the colder-than-normal temperatures.